Program Notes | Opening Weekend: Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto No. 1

Jessie Montgomery
Born: December 9, 1981, in New York City
Composed: 2020-2022
World Premiere: April 22, 2022, in Chicago; Riccardo Muti conducted the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.
Duration: 12 minutes
Instrumentation: piccolo, flute, oboe, English horn, two clarinets, bassoon, contrabassoon, two horns, two trumpets, three trombones, tuba, timpani, percussion (chimes, almglocken, tom tom, bass drum), and strings

Jessie Montgomery’s music has made frequent appearances on New Jersey Symphony programs in the past several years. Her works are appearing on concerts throughout the country, reflecting her prominent place in American music. Montgomery writes powerful and accessible music for chamber ensemble, chorus, solo instruments, and orchestra.

A violinist and educator as well as a composer, Montgomery grew up in a musical household on Manhattan’s Lower East Side. Her parents worked in music and theater and were active in neighborhood arts initiatives. Montgomery earned her undergraduate degree from The Juilliard School in violin performance, and subsequently completed a master’s degree in Film Composition and Multimedia at NYU. She was a Graduate Fellow in Music Composition at Princeton, and was Mead Composer-in-Residence with the Chicago Symphony from 2021 to 2024.

Her composer’s note provides a general backdrop.

Hymn for Everyone is based on a hymn that I wrote during the spring of 2021 that was a reflection on personal and collective challenges happening at the time. Up until that point, I had resisted composing “response pieces” to the pandemic and social-political upheaval, and had been experiencing an intense writer’s block.

But one day, after a long hike, this hymn just came to me — a rare occurrence. The melody traverses through different orchestral “choirs,” and is accompanied by the rest of the ensemble. It is a kind of meditation for orchestra, exploring various washes of color and timbre through each repetition of the melody.

The back-story is more personal. Montgomery’s mother passed away in May 2021. Hymn for Everyone is thus also a tribute to her mother. Montgomery has described the piece as a big chorale for orchestra, based on a melody that gets reframed with each iteration. Her work taps into the tradition of hymns offering solace: something to gather and sing collectively. Her designation “for Everyone” renders the message universal.

Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
Born: May 7, 1840, in Votkinsk, Viatka District, Russia
Died: November 6, 1893, in St. Petersburg, Russia
Composed: November 1874 to February 1875
World Premiere: October 25, 1875 in Boston; Hans von Bülow was the soloist
Duration: 32 minutes
Instrumentation: two flutes, two oboes, two clarinets, two bassoons, four horns, two trumpets, three trombones, timpani, solo piano and strings

The Tchaikovsky First Piano Concerto is a perennial audience favorite: one of those unforgettable works -- like the Beethoven Fifth Symphony -- whose opening gambit is immediately recognizable even to the non-music lover. Musical scholar Joseph Kerman, in a wonderful book called Concerto Conversations, calls it ‘the best known of all concerto incipits,’ and describes it thus:

The piano chords that crash in after four bars may or may not constitute what is usually thought of as a texture, but they certainly introduce a marvelous sonority. One gets to the point where those invincible ringing chords block out, if they do not drown out, the great tune in the strings. In a stroke, Tchaikovsky has given the piano an edge it will never lose throughout the whole of this relatively contentious composition.

That very argumentative quality is at the heart of what a concerto is about: the fundamental conflict between a lone instrument and the large orchestral ensemble. Ironically, those majestic keyboard chords that Kerman mentions are actually in D-flat, the relative major, although the concerto is nominally in B-flat minor. In fact, the odd opening in minor mode never recurs.

Tchaikovsky was at the most basic level a man both of the theatre and of theatrical instincts. He understood how to maximize the inherent drama of piano plus orchestra. He was not, however, a pianist, and that gap in his musical expertise led to a lack of self-confidence when composing for keyboard. His letters to his family and his patroness, Nadejhda von Meck, reflect his hesitation about writing a virtuoso work for an instrument he did not play well himself. Late in 1874, he consulted the Russian pianist Nikolai Rubinstein about a new concerto for piano and orchestra he had just completed. Rubinstein's initial reaction was scathing. His harsh criticism included accusing Tchaikovsky of writing unplayable music and stealing others' ideas.

Tchaikovsky was both incensed and deeply wounded. Three years after the fact, he was still smarting, writing to von Meck:

An independent witness of this scene must have concluded that I was a talentless maniac, a scribbler with no notion of composing, who had ventured to lay his rubbish before a famous man. . . . I was not only astounded, but deeply mortified, by the whole scene.

His immediate reaction was to erase Rubinstein's name from the dedication and substitute that of the German pianist and conductor Hans von Bülow. Bülow played the premiere of the B-flat minor concerto in October 1875 while on tour in the United States. In this country the reaction was quite the reverse of Rubinstein's summary judgment. Bülow reported that he was often cheered on to repeat the entire last movement. Shortly after his return to Europe, Tchaikovsky’s concerto was introduced to Russian audiences. Rubinstein recanted his initial judgment, and went on to become one of its most celebrated interpreters.

The Concerto's rough birthing process is an unlikely prologue to one of the greatest success stories in the history of music. This piece has captured and retained the popular imagination as have few others. Perhaps it defies our mental image of Russia as a dark, grey, grim place with little sunlight in winter. Yet when one visits Moscow and sees the brilliant colors and glint of Saint Basil’s Cathedral, it changes one’s perception.

Russian music and art, as well as architecture, share that brilliant color. This concerto invites a broad palette of color from the performer. From the commanding chords that mark the soloist's entrance to the ferocious Cossack dance that closes the work, Tchaikovsky's First Piano Concerto seduces our ears with warmth, powerful emotions, lyricism and a wealth of persuasive melodies. The familiar themes that anchor the outer movements have origins in Ukrainian folksong, making the concerto a legitimate contender as a nationalist work. The lovely slow movement, on the other hand, draws on French song material, and includes a scherzo-like middle section in elfin contrast and sharp relief to the flamboyant gestures of the opening movement. Tchaikovsky's biographer Edward Garden has written:

The superbly lyrical and gloriously beautiful slow movement -- with its amusingly frivolous scurrying central section based on the French chansonette "Il faut s'amuser, danser et rire" -- acts as a crown to the whole work, or, to put it more appropriately, as an apex to the arch whose bases are the extrovert D-flat major themes.

While the first movement may be disproportionately long in comparison to the two that follow, the concerto as a whole is hugely successful. Tchaikovsky combines drama and sentiment with dazzling technique to produce a showpiece that is a classic of its kind.

Antonín Dvořák
Born: September 8, 1841, in Muhlhausen, Bohemia
Died: May 1, 1904, in Prague, Austria-Hungary
Composed: August-November 1889
World Premiere: February 2, 1890, in Prague. The composer conducted.
Duration: 34 minutes
Instrumentation: two flutes (2nd doubling piccolo), two oboes, two clarinets, two bassoons; four horns, two trumpets, three trombones, tuba, timpani, and strings

Numbering confusion

Dvořák composed nine symphonies, but only five were published during his lifetime. Consequently, great confusion has persisted with respect to their numbering and chronology. The English firm of Novello published this Symphony in 1892 as No. 4, adding fuel to the numbering mix-up and causing the dubious nickname "The English" to be occasionally attached to the work. It is an ironic misnomer, for few of Dvořák's compositions have a more staunch Czech feel to them than this bright symphony.

After the "New World" symphony, the G major is the best loved of Dvořák's large orchestral works. Dvořák's musical approach is disarmingly direct. Part of the symphony's appeal is the folk-like character of the melodies in all four movements. Another asset is Dvořák's magnificent, imaginative writing for woodwinds. So fertile is his melodic gift that virtually every instrument has its chance for solos. That stated, flute emerges as primus inter pares.

Melody vs. structure: Dvořák, Brahms, Bruckner, and others

Most of the sketches for the G- major symphony date from August 1889. Dvořák completed the orchestration by early November, and the premiere took place in Prague under the composer's direction in February 1890. The following January, the prominent Hungarian-born conductor Hans Richter led the Viennese premiere. Richter wrote to the composer the next day:

You would certainly have been pleased with this performance. All of us felt that here was a magnificent work, and so we were all enthusiastic. Brahms dined with me after the performance and we drank to the health of the unfortunately absent father of [your symphony]. Vivat sequens!

Brahms apparently expressed some reservations to the Austrian critic and composer Richard Heuberger. Two days after the Viennese premiere, Heuberger wrote to the publisher Fritz Simrock in Vienna, reporting Brahms’s reaction in some detail.

Too much that’s fragmentary, incidental, loiters about in the piece. Everything fine, musically, captivating and beautiful– but no main points! Especially in the first movement, the result is not proper. But a charming musician! When one says of Dvořák that he fails to achieve anything great and comprehensive with his pure, individual ideas, this is correct. Not so with Bruckner, all the same he offers so little!

Heuberger’s letter implies that Brahms continued to admire Dvořák’s fertile melodic imagination and apparently valued that above the structural integrity of Bruckner’s music. The observation is surprising from a composer who was himself such a rigorous master of musical architecture.

In comparison to Brahms, Dvořák treated symphonic form flexibly. Even so, some historians have noted a stylistic change in this work. Julius Harrison has written:

Melodies come and go in more rhapsodic continuity, less concerned with problems of inner contrapuntal development. Their innate charm is matched by rich yet simple harmonies mostly of a diatonic character, springing naturally from the primary triads of the key in which the music happens to be at the moment. The spirit of fanciful improvisation hovers around.

Childlike wonder and the appeal of rustic Bohemia

By allowing Bohemian songs and dance tunes to dominate, Dvořák gave the symphony a celebratory, almost childlike spirit that permeates all four movements. The consistency of mood is underscored by a strong thematic relationship between the first and last movements. As Harrison indicates, both have themes based on a simple G major triad, and the emphasis on variation technique in both movements underscores the similarities.

The inner two movements provide contrast and emotional depth. The rhapsodic Adagio, with its bird calls and wistful character, could be a musical portrait of Vysoká, the composer’s beloved summer home. Dvořák's biographer Alec Robertson calls this slow movement:

. . . completely original from start to finish. It could stand as a miniature tone-poem of Czech village life described by a highly sensitive man. There is a touch of pain in the opening harmonies that becomes pronounced later on. The predominant atmosphere, nevertheless, remains resolutely positive.

Czech conductor Rafael Kubelik, rehearsing the finale's opening fanfare, is said to have advised an orchestra, "Gentlemen, in Bohemia the trumpets never call to battle -- they always call to the dance." The characteristic, lighthearted rhythms do indeed pull strongly, inviting foot-tapping and bright smiles. Essentially the finale consists of an introduction – the fanfare – theme and variations, and a coda. What you will remember are the blazing trumpet, the exuberant horn trills, and a spellbinding variation for solo flute.

2025–26 marks the GRAMMY® and Emmy Award-winning conductor Xian Zhang’s 10th season as Music Director of the New Jersey Symphony, and her inaugural season as the Music Director of the Seattle Symphony with whom she has been a long-term collaborator since her debut in 2008. Zhang has also been appointed Principal Guest Conductor of the NCPA Orchestra in Beijing, beginning this season. Following her tenure as Music Director of Orchestra Sinfonica di Milano between 2009–16, she continues as their Conductor Emeritus.

With the New Jersey Symphony, Zhang has commissioned composers such as Wynton Marsalis, Jesse Montgomery, Qigang Chen, Chen Yi, Steven Mackey, Thomas Adès, Daniel Bernard Roumain, Christopher Rouse, Vivian Li, Gary Morgan, Christian McBride, Paquito D’Rivera, and Allison Loggins-Hull. She is also responsible for introducing their annual Lunar New Year celebration. Under her artistic leadership, the New Jersey Symphony won two awards at the mid-Atlantic Emmy Awards in 2022 for their concert films, including EMERGE which was conducted by Xian Zhang, directed by Yuri Alves and co-produced with DreamPlay Films.

As a guest conductor, Zhang appears regularly with the Los Angeles Philharmonic and Philadelphia Orchestra. Her Deutsche Grammophon recording with the latter (Letters for The Future with Time For Three, released 2022) won GRAMMY® awards for Best Contemporary Classical Composition (Kevin Puts’ Contact) and Best Classical Instrumental Solo.

2025–26 highlights include returns to the Philadelphia Orchestra, New York Philharmonic, St. Louis Symphony, and National Arts Centre Ottawa. In Europe, she returns to Netherlands Radio Philharmonic with a performance at the Amsterdam Concertgebouw, and makes her debut at the Finnish National Opera conducting Tosca. This follows her huge success at the Metropolitan Opera in New York, where she recently conducted Madama Butterfly and Tosca to great acclaim:

“The success of Kurzak’s performance was due in no small part to Xian Zhang’s sensitivity as a conductor. Zhang has an exceptional ear for balance, as well as the ability to draw the softest, most transparent tones imaginable from the orchestra. […] With such skills and obvious audience appeal, Zhang should prove a valuable addition to the Met’s conducting staff.” – New York Classical Review

Other recent highlights include subscription programs with the Boston Symphony Orchestra, London Symphony Orchestra, Orquestra Sinfônica do Estado de São Paulo, Houston Symphony, San Francisco Symphony, Washington’s National Symphony Orchestra, Montreal Symphony, Baltimore Symphony, Orchestra of St. Luke’s (including Brahms Requiem at Carnegie Hall), and Orchestre National du Capitole de Toulouse.

Zhang previously served as Principal Guest Conductor of the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra and BBC National Orchestra & Chorus of Wales, the first female conductor to hold a titled role with a BBC orchestra. In 2002, she won first prize in the Maazel-Vilar Conductor's Competition. She was appointed New York Philharmonic’s Assistant Conductor in 2002, subsequently becoming their Associate Conductor and the first holder of the Arturo Toscanini Chair.

Blessed with “poetic and sensitive pianism” (Washington Post) and a “wondrous sense of color” (San Francisco Classical Voice), GRAMMY®-nominated pianist Joyce Yang captivates audiences with her virtuosity, lyricism, and interpretive sensitivity. She first came to international attention in 2005 when she won the silver medal at the 12th Van Cliburn International Piano Competition. The youngest contestant at 19 years old, she took home two additional awards: Best Performance of Chamber Music (with the Takàcs Quartet), and Best Performance of a New Work.

Over the last two decades, Yang has blossomed into an “astonishing artist” (Neue Zürcher Zeitung), showcasing her colorful musical personality in solo recitals and collaborations with the world’s top orchestras and chamber musicians through more than 1,000 debuts and re-engagements. She received the 2010 Avery Fisher Career Grant and earned her first GRAMMY nomination (Best Chamber Music/Small Ensemble Performance) for her recording of Franck, Kurtág, Previn & Schumann with violinist Augustin Hadelich (“One can only sit in misty-eyed amazement at their insightful flair and spontaneity.” – The Strad).

Other notable orchestral engagements have included the Chicago Symphony, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Philadelphia Orchestra, San Francisco Symphony, Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, Hong Kong Philharmonic, the BBC Philharmonic, as well as the Toronto, Vancouver, Sydney, Melbourne, and New Zealand symphony orchestras.

In the summer of 2025, Yang made a celebrated return to the Aspen Music Festival performing Brahms Piano Concerto No. 1, and made her debut at San Diego’s Mainly Mozart Festival. In the 2025–26 season, as one of the most in-demand soloists and recitalists today, Yang will continue to present her wide range of repertoire in over 30 cities around the world playing piano concerti with New Jersey Symphony, St. Louis Symphony, Vancouver Symphony, Oregon Symphony, Milwaukee Symphony, and Belgian National Orchestra among many others, and give solo recitals at Celebrity Series of Boston, Meany Center for the Performing Arts in Seattle, and ECHO Chamber Music Series in San Diego. As a chamber musician, Yang will reunite with the Takàcs Quartet performing Schumann’s Piano Quintet.

Born in Seoul, South Korea, Yang received her first piano lesson from her aunt at the age of four. She quickly took to the instrument, which she received as a birthday present. By the age of ten, she had entered the School of Music at the Korea National University of Arts, and went on to make a number of concerto and recital appearances in Seoul and Daejeon. In 1997, Yang moved to the United States to begin studies at the precollege division of the Juilliard School with Dr. Yoheved Kaplinsky. She graduated from Juilliard with special honor as the recipient of the school’s 2010 Arthur Rubinstein Prize, and in 2011 she won its 30th Annual William A. Petschek Piano Recital Award. She is a Steinway artist